An opportunity exists for increasing production and reserves from wells. Government regulations have been introduced requiring companies to conserve producing oil well solution gas, and this has resulted in a gas gathering system that imposes a back pressure to the wells. Any back pressure to a well will result in a higher producing bottomhole pressure and therefore less drawdown. Less drawdown results in less production and reserves.
A field-wide back pressure reduction can significantly benefit production.
Existing pipelines and facilities impose a back pressure to the producing wells. Any length of a pipeline imposes a pressure drop due to fluid flow friction. At gathering satellites and a main battery, surface processing equipment also add back pressure. A battery's process of separating gas, water and oil can add significant back pressure. During the early phase of a producing field, higher reservoir pressures generally allow for acceptance of back pressures. As the producing field depletes, back pressure to the wells becomes more relevant for maximizing economic reservoir recoveries.
To reduce back pressure, facilities modifications have typically included adding of larger separators and adding of more compression capacity. These are generally costly modifications and are often not economically justifiable or viable.